Exploring the Role of Risk in Employee Creativity

2006/03/01 by TODD DEWETT, Todd Dewett · 197 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Engineering · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Applied psychology #Aside #Creativity #Creativity in Education and Neuroscience #Engineering #Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior #Psychology #Situational ethics #Social psychology #Work (physics) #Workplace Spirituality and Leadership

paper · doi:10.1002/j.2162-6057.2006.tb01265.x

published in The Journal of Creative Behavior 40(1), 27-45 (Wiley)

openalex publication_date 2006/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

Abstract This paper argues that creative behavior requires an employee to be willing to engage risk. Aside from the discussion of risk propensity as an individual difference, a new situational variable will be developed and tested: willingness to take risks (WTR). WTR captures the employee's willingness to engage risks in their work and is positioned as an important influence on creative behavior. The results of a field study indicate that WTR is a significant predictor of employee creativity and, in addition, mediates the relationship between encouragement and creativity. The results are discussed in light of the current literature on employee creativity.

Citations

• WHEN JOB DISSATISFACTION LEADS TO CREATIVITY: ENCOURAGING THE EXPRESSION OF VOICE.
• Enhancing Creativity: Managing Work Contexts for the High Potential Employee
• Organizational Innovation: The Influence of Individual, Organizational, and Contextual Factors on Hospital Adoption of Technological and Administrative Innovations.
• PSYCHOLOGICAL CONDITIONS OF PERSONAL ENGAGEMENT AND DISENGAGEMENT AT WORK.
• Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams
• The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations.

Cited by

• Toward a Theory of Remixing in Online Innovation Communities
• The relation between state and trait risk taking and problem-solving. [europepmc]
• Now You Do It, Now You Don't: The Mixed Blessing of Creative Deviance as a Prosocial Behavior. [europepmc]
• The role of synergistic interplay among proactive personality, leader creativity expectations, and role clarity in stimulating employee creativity. [europepmc]
• The relationship between empowering leadership and radical creativity. [europepmc]
• Autonomy in the context of cognitive demands-is the resource becoming a stressor? [europepmc]
• Research on Employee Voice Intention: Conceptualization, Scale Development, and Validation Among Enterprises in China. [europepmc]
• Introducing Entropy into Organizational Psychology: An Entropy-Based Proactive Control Model. [europepmc]
• Going Underground: How Perceived High-Performance Work Systems Influence Bootlegging Behavior? A Multi-Level Moderated Mediation Approach. [europepmc]
• The dual effects of leader bottom-line mentality on employee innovation behavior: the mediating role of willingness to take risks and the moderating role of work values. [europepmc]
• Trust the Machine or Trust Yourself: How AI Usage Reshapes Employee Self-Efficacy and Willingness to Take Risks. [europepmc]

Related

• Unfolding the Proactive Process for Creativity
• Are Individual-Level Factors Necessary for Creativity in the Workplace? A Necessary Condition Analysis
• Do social relationships at work enhance creativity and innovative behavior? Role of psychological safety
• Idiosyncratic deals and employee creativity: The mediating role of creative self‐efficacy
• The Effects of Personal and Contextual Characteristics on Creativity: Where Should We Go from Here?